London – The trailer for new play The Nether does not feature the traditional snippets of the live show, but an immersive website that invites potential theatre-goers to explore a virtual fantasy.
The Nether by Los Angeles dramatist Jennifer Haley, on for a limited run at The Royal Court Theatre, is a new play that explores the darkest corners of the internet and questions how virtual online anonymity affects real-life identity.
As such, it fittingly turned to the internet for its trailer, A Nether Realm. Visitors to the site are greeted with eerie music and words that appear on the page as if the computer is talking to them. They are invited to enter the Nether, ‘a space that can be shaped entirely by your imagination, where you can be anything you want to be’.
Using key strokes, viewers can choose to be human, beast or hybrid, and navigate through the Nether, touching trees and sensing the space through the sounds playing that bring that tactility to life.
While The Nether uses a traditional format for a play, it embraces Futuretainment by creating excitement and buzz through immersion tactics. For more, read our Seed on the Secret Cinema pop-up shops, another pre-entertainment immersive experience.